Ludwig Feuerbach

Ludwig Feuerbach was born in Landshut in Bavaria in 1804, the son of a famous criminal jurist. He studied theology at Heidelberg, then went to Berlin to hear Hegel for two years, writing to his father, 'I have turned from theology to philosophy.' As an unsalaried lecturer at Erlangen he published anonymously Thoughts on Death and Immortality, denying the immortality of the individual soul; once his authorship became known he could never again obtain a university post. He married a woman who owned shares in a porcelain factory and lived for more than twenty years at Bruckberg in the countryside, writing in seclusion. The Essence of Christianity shook the whole of German thought; Engels recalled, 'We all became at once Feuerbachians.' In his last years the porcelain factory went bankrupt, and he spent the rest of his life in poverty.